Randy Pittman, our vice president for university advancement, represented Samford at the Southern Baptist Convention in New Orleans last week during the historic election of the first African-American president of the SBC, Dr. Fred Luter.  Always on the trail of Samford connections, Randy reports that Dr. Luter’s daughter, Kim, received her undergraduate and master’s degrees from Samford.  (Kim is a teacher in our local public schools.)  In addition, he said that the music in all the sessions was led by Samford people:   “Mark Cottingham ’83 was the overall worship leader for the convention, and it was very moving to see him on stage singing a duet with his daughter, our admissions counselor Sarah Cottingham ’11, accompanied at the piano by Mark’s wife and Sarah’s mom Rebekah. Later that same day, Charles Billingsley ’92 also joined them on stage to lead music. The second day of the convention, we were led in contemporary worship by Bobby Smith ’08, and Bobby was accompanied by a couple of Samford alums.”

 

The world is better because Samford “is a diverse community, stressing vigorous learning and faith, in the Baptist tradition.”